BoJack Horseman Interview

We Spoke With Raphael Bob-Waksberg About BoJack Horseman

You might not know the name Raphael Bob-Waksberg, but you know his work or you will. At only 30 years old, Bob-Waksberg is starting production on the third season of his hit Netflix animated series, BoJack Horseman, starring the voices of Will Arnett, Aaron Paul, Alison Brie, Amy Sedaris, and Paul F. Tompkins. His sketch comedy group Olde English created hundreds of shorts that have millions of online views. The group also wrote and starred in an award-winning feature-length film, the comedy-documentary hybrid The Exquisite Corpse Project.

I spoke to him at The Beverly Hilton during Netflix’s event for the Television Critics Association. He had already spoken to dozens of reporters, but was nice enough to discuss the things he feels have made him a success.

Ryan McKee: What is one aspect of your personality that you think makes you successful?

Raphael Bob-Waksberg: Well, Netflix is a wonderful company to work for and they really do encourage me to go as far out there as I want to go and make it as personal and as weird and as interesting as I want it to be. I think you can very much see the evolution in the first season of the kind of cartoon that I thought I had to make, to the show that I really wanted to do by the end of the first season. I'm very interested in telling darker stories that maybe you are not used to seeing in animation. Especially because in animation you don't see those kind of stories.

What is one uncommon thing you do nearly everyday that helps you to be more productive?

TV writers don't do things to be more productive we do things to procrastinate. I can always find something to do that isn't the thing I should be doing. I find it is helpful to use different parts of the brain. If you are stuck on a problem, go for a walk and think about something else for a little bit. Going for a walk is very helpful for a writer because if you are staring at a blank page of a computer screen there is all this pressure. Or put a puzzle together or make something out of Legos and try to give this part of your brain a rest. It keeps working in the background like an app you forget to close. But it's not something I do everyday. Maybe I should. Also, I'm a big proponent of this for other people and I don't do it enough for myself, but allowing yourself to get bored. It is so easy now to never get bored because we have our phones with us all the time and we are always looking at stuff. I think when we get bored we are the most creative.

Can you speak a little more about your writing habits?

I don't know if I have writing habits. Writing is impossible and every time I have to do it I kind of forget how. Like we got picked up for Season 3 and we are starting the conversations of what does season three look like? And it's like how did we do this twice already? I don't remember how to do it. It's always terrifying.

Do you write anything knowing you are never going to show it to anyone?

I have a blog. It's kind of weird because it allows you to believe you are not wasting it because people are going to be seeing it but it also takes the pressure off because no one is really going to see it. It's hard for me to get motivated if I really feel that no one is going to see it. But I have things that I noodle on that I'm not doing for other people. Part of it is that I'm so narcissistic that I believe everyone wants to see everything I write no matter what. So I'll do things that are for me, but then I'll be like, "Everyone else, look what I did!"

What do you do when you can't sleep?

Lie in bed thinking about the terror of what tomorrow will bring. No, I try to listen to music or podcasts to distract me. I find it is helpful to focus when you want to sleep. If you let your mind wander, you can fill up with terrors.

What is the hardest part about being the boss that you didn't expect?

You have to double down on your own convictions and say yes this is what I really want. I think it is natural for everyone to second-guess themselves. In the writer's room, we have a very open and collaborative spirit and I think our writers are not afraid to disagree and we can talk and debate. But at the end of the day it is my decision. And sometimes that is really scary because I want someone else to say this is really good. But I have to believe it is good.

What is something you keep trying to do, but always quit?

Exercising! Is that a boring answer? I'm like ‘This is the week I am going to get in shape. Nope, wasn't the week. Maybe next week will be the time."

Do you have a mentor?

I don't think I have one mentor, but I have a lot of people who give me great advice over the years. And people that I look up to. I think my parents, who I respect a lot. They are wonderful and delightful human beings. My sister Becky always complains, "Everyone who watches the show assumes that you come from a terrible family and you don't. You came from a very loving and supporting family. You were raised right, and your family loves you and are very supportive and proud of you and you are nothing like BoJack's parents." I said I don't think people assume I'm like BoJack's parents.

How do you overcome negative criticism?

I ignore them, they don't get it.

Really? How about when someone criticizes something in the work that you were already questioning?

I feel like all of the positive stuff is really nice and all of the negative stuff is kind of annoying. But nobody gets to the heart of what I am trying to do or what my own failings are. And nobody can. And that is not a criticism of anybody's criticism or an aggrandizement of myself; that I am this brilliant genius that nobody ever touches. We all live alone in the house of the heart. And what it means is something very specific to me. It will mean other things to other people and that is what is so wonderful and magical. I don't think there are things that I feel self-conscious about that I can pinpoint and think, "Boy that feels sh*tty." What is more frustrating is that I feel like the negative reviewers are way off base. You didn't get it. That is not what we are trying to do at all.

Isn't that art?

Yes. The art exists and it is yours to do what you will with it. And if you get something great out of it, awesome, it is working for you. If you don't get it then I'm sorry that sucks we couldn't make that connection. I don't want to tell people what BoJack means to them and I don't want people to tell me what BoJack means to me.